You
'You and Me and the Cottage of Lost Play '''was the title of the first version of a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, written in April 1915 ''The History of Middle-earth Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, chapter I: "The Cottage of Lost Play", Commentary on The Cottage of Lost Play. It is also the earliest mention of the Cottage of Lost Play of Tolkien's earlier Middle-earth mythology - two years later, his tale The Cottage of Lost Play, which would become the first of the "Lost Tales"The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, contents, was finished. After some renditions, this poem became ''The Little House of Lost Play: Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva'', but the first version read as follows: You and me - we know that land And often have been there In the long old days, old nursery days, A dark child and a fair. Was it down the paths of firelight dreams In winter cold and white, Or in the blue-spun twilit hours Of little early tucked-up beds In drowsy summer night, That You and I got lost in Sleep And met each other there -'' ''Your dark hair on your white nightgown, And mine was tangled fair? We wandered shyly hand in hand, Or rollicked in the fairy sand And gathered pearls and shells in pails, While all about the nightingales Were singing in the trees. We dug for silver with our spades By little inland sparkling seas, Then ran ashore through sleepy seas, And down a warm and winding lane And never never found again Between high whispering trees. The air was neither night or day, But faintly dark with softest light, When first there glimmered into sight The Cottage of Lost Play. 'Twas builded very very old White, and thatched with straws of gold, And pierced with peeping lattices That looked toward the sea; And our own children's garden-plots Were there--our own forgetmenots, Red daisies, cress and mustard, And blue nemophile. O! All the borders trimmed with box Were full of favourite flowers - of phlox, Of larkspur, pinks, and hollyhocks Beneath a red may-tree: And all the paths were full of shapes, Of tumbling happy white-clad shapes, And with them You and Me. And some had silver watering-cans And watered all their gowns, Or sprayed each other; some laid plans To build them houses, fairy towns, Or dwellings in the trees; And some were clambering on the roof; Some crooning lonely and aloof; And some were dancing fairy-rings And weaving pearly daisy-strings, Or chasing golden bees; But here and there a little pair With rosy cheeks and tangled hair Debated quaint old childish things -'' ''And we were one of these. But why it was there came a time When we could take the road no more, Though long we looked, and high would climb, Or gaze from many a seaward shore To find the path between sea and sky To those old gardens of delight; And how it goes now in that land, If there the house and gardens stand, Still filled with children clad in white -'' ''We know not, You and I. And why it was Tomorrow came And with his grey hand led us back; And why we never found the same Old cottage, or the magic track That leads between a silver sea And those old shores and gardens fair Where all things are, that ever were -'' ''We know not, You and Me. Translations around the world References Category:Poems